November 1, 2009

Report by Omar Rawji

In the fourth and final game of the series against USA on Sunday morning, Team Canada finally came out with the start they wanted, and they built a 2-0 lead by the 26th minute. The final score was 3-1 Canada after a second half that was a test for the team’s defensive resolve, as they played shorthanded for much of it.

Mark Pearson led the offense with two goals - the first coming off an interception by Ranjeev Deol, who passed it to Pearson for the finish. Considering that the team that has been stressing the importance of capitalizing on counters, it was particularly satisfying.

““We talked in the pre-game about working on our fast breaks and getting more out of our counter opportunities,” said Pearson. “Sure enough, four minutes in, a turnover came to Jeevers (Deol), who played a lovely ball through to me, and I just ran in and smashed it by the goalie.” His second came in the 26th minute, on a great play by Taylor Curran.

“The second one was a good buildup – the ball got to Taylor, he made a nice turn coming in on the two-on-one and he just fed it across far post. It was a good ball, and I was just in there to dive in and score.”

The second half was defined by Canada’s yellow cards, which started with a cautioning to Keegan Pereira in the 51st minute. Mark Erickson would subsequently be carded in the 55th minute, followed by Pearson in the 57th – making Canada play down by two men for five minutes and by one for an additional six.

”That was a bit of a turning point, and they cranked up the heat a little bit and started pressing, but I think we got out of it pretty good,” said Canadian Head Coach Alan Brahmst.

Immediately before Pereira’s cautioning, he played a large role in creating the team’s final goal, as he swiftly ran the ball up the left side and into the D, crossing it towards Ian Smyth who dove in attempt to finish the play, resulting in a penalty corner. Captain Scott Tupper would take the corner and score the 3-0 goal, as the team went one-for-three on short corner opportunities.

With many of Canada’s veterans not in attendance for this game, the young guns played a prominent role. Mark Erickson and Jesse Watson played the entire match, and Connor Meakin, Taylor Curran, Pereira, and Smyth all played significant minutes. Coach Brahmst had particular praise for the play of Meakin and Curran, who are showing impressive improvement as their confidence rises.

Team captain Scott Tupper looked at the stretch of penalties in a positive light, “I think we kept our cool, we didn’t do too bad being down by 2 men. I think in a way it’s a good learning experience because that could happen in a tournament.”

Coach Brahmst was also pleased at his team’s response: “I think the boys did a fantastic job playing two men down – we were playing with eight guys out there,” he said. “There was about 10-15 minutes where the US was pushing and they did some good things.”

On the series as a whole, Brahmst was impressed with the American’s efforts, “The US definitely improved over the four games, but we improved too, and we just stayed ahead of them.”

Worth noting, Dave Jameson celebrated his 25th birthday in front of a nice group of hometown supporters. His moment of glory, to them, came in the 68th minute when he blocked a penalty corner shot off his knee.

“It was great, he took one for the team, and you have to do those things,” said Susan Paterson, the most vocal member of the DJ fanclub. “We are so proud to have his face on our shirts.”

Following an intense month of matches against India and USA, the team has 25 days to rest before they leave for Argentina to resume their pre-World Cup training regimen. In the meantime there will be plenty of analysis of the games, and there will be more to come on this in the upcoming days.


Scoring Summary:

3’ – CAN Pearson, Mark (FG) 1-0 Canada
26’ – CAN Pearson, Mark (FG) 2-0 Canada
51’ – CAN Tupper, Scott (PC) 3-0 Canada
56’ – USA Coolidge, Nate (PC) 3-1 Canada

Report by Omar Rawji

On a cold and rainy Thursday night at UBC’s Wright Field, Canada outplayed USA for the most part, but a few defensive breakdowns were difference makers in a 3-2 loss. The frozen crowd was treated to an exciting final 10 minutes. With the game tied 1-1, the Americans scored a field goal in 61st minute to take a 2-1 lead. Canada had an immediate reply, however, as they quickly pushed the ball downfield.

“We pretty much came straight down the field. Benny (Ben Martin) made a couple of nice moves on the right and played it into the circle. Philly (Philip Wright) just touched it on. I was just cruising around the goalie and just tucked it over him,” said goal-scorer Mark Pearson, whose marker tied the game at 2-2.

In the 67th minute, Gabbar Singh made a quick run down the right side, crossing the ball in towards Wright who just missed the ball for the go ahead goal. A moment later, a strong effort from Ranjeev Deol drew Canada’s fourth penalty corner chance, but Canada failed to score. Then, in the 68th minute of the match, a strong challenge from Canadian goalkeeper Antoni Kindler would result in the first of three penalty corners. The first two were blocked, but on the third try, the American’s took what looked like an option play down to their captain Sean Harris, who out-waited Kindler and shot the ball over him for the win.

Head Coach Alan Brahmst felt his team deserved a better outcome: “We had the majority of the possession, and we generated the majority of the opportunities on the attack. But we gave up silly counters and we didn’t control the counter game at all, and partially, in defense, we were dreaming. These games can go that way and sometimes you end up on the short end of the stick.”

Two Canadians played their first international matches, and both Stephen Bissett and Antoni Kindler were excited to have done so in front of a home crowd. Being the goalie, Kindler played a large role in the match, and he said afterwards that once the early game nerves passed, he felt his confidence grow. The final minute loss wasn’t quite the perfect debut he had hoped for, unfortunately.

With the four game series tied at one game apiece, the world 11th ranked Canadian National Team will be looking to send a message over the 19th ranked Americans on Saturday, and as long as they can cut down the errors, they should be able to do so. Match time is 12:30 p.m. at Wright Field.



Scoring Summary:

22’ - USA Ginolfi, Jon (FG) 1-0 USA

32’ – CAN Fernandes, Wayne (PC) 1-1

61’ – USA Schilling, Robert (FG) 2-1 USA

61’ – CAN Pearson, Mark (FG) 2-2

70’ – USA Harris, Sean (GK) 3-2 USA


Penalty Corners: CAN 4 – USA 5